Tuesday, August 30, 2016

SHAKESPEARE: Othello Act I (Jealousy)

In
recent readings both Rousseau and Darwin took optimistic views of human
nature.Rousseau places his confidence
in equality.He says “since the
condition is equal for everyone, no one has an interest in making it burdensome
for others.” (The Social Contract, GB1)Darwin places his confidence in Man’s social instinct.He says “looking to future generations, there
is no cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker, and we may
expect that virtuous habits will grow stronger…” (The Moral Sense of Man,
GB2).Shakespeare’s Othello gives a
different opinion of human nature.In
this play Shakespeare explores one of the fundamental flaws in the theory of
human progress: jealousy.As the play
opens Roderigo is jealous of Desdemona’s love for Othello.Iago is jealous of Cassio’s recent promotion by
Othello.Brabantio is jealous because
Othello has stolen away his daughter.Othello
is jealous of the culture and sophistication of the Venetians. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with any
of these desires.Young men normally want
a beautiful woman, not just Roderigo.Ambitious
men normally want better jobs with more power and higher social status, not
just Iago.Fathers normally want their
daughters to be safe and secure, not just Brabantio.And many a brutish man wants a good education
and good manners, not just Othello.Jealousy
isn’t necessarily wanting something you don’t have, that’s normal; it’s pushing
desire beyond the normal boundaries of law and even basic human decency.

Each
of these four men (Roderigo, Iago, Brabantio, Othello) has a character flaw that
expresses itself in various ways.Jealousy represents a breakdown of rational thought and makes each man
do foolish things.Roderigo wants to
make love to Desdemona.Because of jealousy
he’ll spend everything he owns to get into bed with her.Iago doesn’t just want Cassio’s
position.Because of jealousy he wants
to destroy Othello for passing him over for promotion.Brabantio says he only wants his daughter Desdemona
to be safe and secure.But what he
really wants is for Desdemona to do as he says.Because of jealousy Brabantio disowns her when he finds out she’s gone
behind his back and married Othello.Othello
is a special case.That’s why the play
is named after him.For starters, he’s a
Moor living in Venice.Not only that,
he’s the brilliant military commander of the Venetian forces.The Turks (or “Ottomites” as they’re called
in the play) are set to attack Venetian strongholds in Cyprus.Othello, a Moor, is asked to lead the Venetian
fight against the Moors. That’s when all
the tensions in the play start converging.Othello will be loyal to Venice but who will be loyal to him?Will Desdemona be a loyal wife?Brabantio plants the seed of jealousy in
Othello’s heart when he says: “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see; she
has deceiv’d her father, and may thee.”This could easily be dismissed as the rantings of a jealous father
except for one thing, Iago.Iago waters
the seed of jealousy and it grows beyond the boundaries of Othello’s emotional
capacities.Othello may be a great
commander of military forces and a good judge of how to make war on the
battlefield.But he’s ill-equipped to
withstand the onslaught of Iago’s psychological warfare.So Iago uses Othello’s own open-hearted
nature against him as he plots his strategy: “the Moor is of a free and open
nature, that thinks men honest that but seem to be so, and will as tenderly be
led by the nose as asses are.”The whole
play revolves around a central question: why did Othello marry Desdemona in the
first place?It’s not a rational move. Marriage is really not in his best interests
and probably not in hers either.As an
outsider living in Venice is it really wise to go and marry a powerful Senator’s
daughter behind his back?By doing so Othello
made an enemy of Barbantio.Desdemona is
disinherited.Still, it’s possible they might
have lived happily ever after; just not in Venice.But once Iago fans the flames of Othello’s
imagination they wouldn’t be able to live happily anywhere.Jealousy is the key that unlocks the whole human
tragedy.